


There Will Be Pie

by Imasupermuteant



Series: Out of Time [4]
Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M, Meet the Family, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-08
Updated: 2012-03-08
Packaged: 2017-11-01 15:43:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imasupermuteant/pseuds/Imasupermuteant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The holiday season is a time for family. Even if you don't want it to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Booster

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is about Thanksgiving. I hate Thanksgiving. It's a horrible holiday in which people are forced to spend time together even if they don't want to and I'm not allowed to have any pie. Also it's usually on or just after my birthday. Pretty much the shittiest holiday ever. Booster, however, disagrees with me.

Thanksgiving, as far as Booster was concerned, was one of the greatest holidays ever. It gave him an excuse to eat as much food as he wanted without Beetle giving him the stink eye, there was a parade on TV, and he didn't have to buy anyone a gift. Also, Mrs. Gregory who lived down the hall would foist her leftovers on him and he wouldn't have to cook for a week. It was _great_.  
  
Add to that the fact that they didn't have Thanksgiving when Booster was from. Mostly because of some silly thing about cultural insensitivity and smallpox, but Booster wasn't clear on the details and was mostly interested in experiencing a whole new celebration. Booster had the pleasure of enjoying the holiday without any of the cultural guilt. He was from the _future_.  
  
Booster had been looking forward to celebrating the holiday with some pie, football, and maybe Ted and Bart.  
  
What he hadn't been looking forward to was an awkward call from his younger lover (it was clear there was someone listening in on the other end because Bart was speaking slowly and without curses) inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner at the Garrick household.  
  
Booster had eaten dinner with the Garricks before and it had been possibly the most awkward experience of his entire life. There was nothing more uncomfortable than trying to eat while being glared down by the protective guardians of your teenage boyfriend. _Nothing_. Add in the likelihood that Wally would be there and Booster was sure that he wouldn't leave the dinner table with all of his genitalia intact.  
  
"Please?" Bart's voice whined over the phone, "There will be pie!"  
  
Booster did like pie.  
  
On the other hand, Booster _really_ didn't like Wally.  
  
"Well..." How to let Bart down softly?  
  
"'Cause I used to have Thanksgiving at Max's house and now we're not. I mean, obviously. And I thought it would be nice for you to be there with me, but not if you don't want to 'cause I know you don't like Wally all that much and..."  
  
Fuck.  
  
"Sure thing, babe!" Booster faked his cheerfullest voice while mentally kissing his pleasant holiday celebration goodbye, "I'll be there with bells on."  
  
"Bells? I thought that was Christmas. These holidays don't make any sense!"  
  
Booster grinned, Bart was pretty much the most adorable thing ever. "I'll be there."  
  
"Good." There was a long pause over the line, "So... Ummm... Jay is sitting, like, _right_ beside me, but I thought you should know that I really like you and this means a lot."  
  
"I like you too." Booster told him, reminding himself that Thanksgiving with Bart was better than Thanksgiving without Bart, even if Wally had to be involved, "Are you sure I can't talk you into Beer and Parade Night with Ted?"  
  
"If only." Booster could just imagine Bart making that adorable scrunched-nose face, "That would be way more fun."  
  
Booster sighed, "I guess I'll see you on Thursday then."  
  
"Yeahokaybye!" The phone clicked and Booster was left alone.  
  
Alone with plans for Thanksgiving.  
  
Plans which conflicted with his annual _non_ -plans with Ted. Which usually included beer and turkey and Doing Stupid Stuff. Someone was going to be upset with Booster's change in plans. Two people, really, as Booster himself wasn't so keen on the idea.  
  
With a sigh, Booster lifted up his phone and pressed the speed-dial (number 2, number 1 was for the Chinese place down the street). Each ring fell upon his ears like a death toll or a dying cow or something equally ominous.  
  
"Kord Industries, we only make weapons of mass destruction when you aren't looking."  
  
"Ted?"  
  
"Whassup Boost?" Ted sounded distracted. Most likely he was working on something vaguely dangerous.  
  
"So..." How to say this? "You know about our plans for Thursday?"  
  
"Booze, football, me carefully not bringing up girls so that I don't have to listen to intimate details of your sordid sex life. Just like every year. Why?"  
  
Booster took a deep breath, "I can't make it."  
  
"What? Why?! You love Thanksgiving!"  
  
"I know."  
  
"There's beer! And a parade!"  
  
"I know."  
  
"You don't even have to give anyone presents!"  
  
Ted was sounding pretty damn upset. Booster had no idea that their private celebration had meant so much to him.  
  
"I'm going over to Bart's. Dinner with the Flash Familia."  
  
There was a long pause. Booster heard something that sounded very much like soldering. Ted was definitely taking his frustrations out with a blow torch.  
  
"Buddy?"  
  
"You're going to celebrate the greatest holiday ever with the family of your underage paramour who, I might add, hate you more than waiting in line. Instead of chilling with me?"  
  
"...Yes?"  
  
"Dude! Not cool!" There was the blowtorch again. Booster felt a twinge of pity for whatever poor chunk of metal was receiving the brunt of Ted's ire.  
  
"I couldn't say no!"  
  
"Bros before hos, Booster, _bros before hos_!"  
  
"Who even says that anymore?" Booster demanded, "I thought we could be grown up about this."  
  
"Well I don't want to." Ted told him, "Call me when it's time to cancel Christmas."  
  
There was a click. And a dial tone.  
  
Booster was relatively sure that he would be talking to Ted before the next holiday. These little pouts were usually the result of too little sleep and too much coffee combined with science-ing.  
  
He made a mental note to give Ted a call the next day.  
  
At least, he thought to himself, there would be pie. Pie would make everything better. For pie (and Bart), Booster would sit through anything.  
  
Even Wally.  
  
And, speaking of the the sanctimonious prick, Booster had an errand to run.  
  
He was up to the watchtower and delivering his birthday bouquet to Zatanna (it never hurt to remember birthdays, especially ones that occurred close to holidays) when he ran into the scarlet speedster himself. Physically.  
  
"Ow! Fuck!" Wally cried as Booster knocked into him from behind. He'd been standing (rudely) in the middle of the hallway and Booster's vision had been blocked by the flowers and, really, who _stood in the middle of the hallway_?  
  
" _Feki_!" Booster cried, trying to keep the vase from toppling over.  
  
"Watch where you're going-- Oh. It's you."  
  
Never had a pair of eyes glared so heavily in Booster's direction (and he'd been on the receiving end of Bat-disapproval).  
  
"Hey, Flash."  
  
"Booster."  
  
"I... err..."  
  
"Secret admirer?"  
  
"No. It's Zatanna's birthday."  
  
"I didn't know you and Zatanna were that close." Chilly. Booster almost shivered.  
  
"We're not."  
  
Flash raised an eyebrow, "Got a little crush have you? I thought you were gay."  
  
Booster felt his lips tightening into a thin line, "It's called good networking, _Wally_ , and binary definitions of sexual orientation are an outdated concept."  
  
"So is basic morality, apparently."  
  
"You know _what_ Flash--" Booster inhaled, calming himself down, "I... Let's just try to be civil, okay? Look, do you want me to bring anything?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"To Thanksgiving. Do you want me to bring something? Wine? Pie?"  
  
"You're coming to Thanksgiving?!"  
  
Shit. Booster was not prepared for this amount of family drama. Certainly not before the actual holiday began.  
  
"Uh... yeah?"  
  
Had Wally been anyone else Booster might have described the look on his face as a pout. Or maybe fury. It was hard to tell, but the Flash was definitely getting redder in the face with every moment.  
  
A burst of wind, knocking every bloom off of Booster's bouquet, and Wally was gone.  
  
Booster looked at his ruined (and very expensive) gift. Sighed. And headed home. If Wally's reaction was anything to go by, this holiday was going to be _Horrible_.


	2. Bart

Bart really didn't know how to feel about Thanksgiving. On the one hand, he could eat tons of food, enough that he felt _full_ , for once. On the other hand...  
  
There was no other hand. Thanksgiving was the awesomest. The only reason Bart was feeling even a little less-than-excited was that this would be the first Thanksgiving he spent without Max.   
  
Last Thanksgiving had been pretty damn cool, they'd made pie and done this thing with mashed sweet potatoes and marshmallows on top. Bart had done all the cooking (with Max's instruction of course) and they'd spent the long, excruciating wait with meditation-practice and origami.   
  
This year, Jay had hardly wanted to let Bart near the oven at all, the only reason he did was because of Bart's world-famous pouty eyes. That and because Bart promised to keep a fire extinguisher on hand.  
  
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his trust in Bart.   
  
Still, Bart was trying to have the very best Thanksgiving he could. Which is why he had invited Booster, and why he was currently baking pumpkin pie the day before the big day itself. Pie, in Bart's epicurean opinion, always benefited from a day of rest.   
  
He was very lucky that Jay had one of those fancy two-oven kitchens.   
  
"How's it going Bart?" The previously mentioned over-protective mentor appeared, peering over Bart's shoulder as he started prepping the ovens.  
  
"Good." Bart said, focusing, "I'm making pie. Like I said I would."   
  
"I see." Jay noded, "And why are you baking six pies?"  
  
Bart look up at him and rolled his eyes, "It's a _Flash_ Thanksgiving."  
  
"I see. And why two ovens? I would think we'd have room in the one."  
  
"It's for the Impatience Pie."  
  
"What?"  
  
Embarrassment made Bart want to vibrate through the floor. He shuffled his feet a little instead.  
  
"Well... I get really _impatient_ right? So I make an extra pie and I put it in a second oven, here." He gestured to the oven on the left, "And when I get really, really impatient, I open _this_ oven and I leave the other one alone. So when the timer goes off, I get to squish my hands in the Impatience Pie and play with it and maybe eat a little bit of it right away, if it isn't too ruined, and the other pies are safe for Thanksgiving."  
  
"That's... An interesting idea, Bart." Bart never knew whether 'interesting' was supposed to be good or 'stupid and immature'.  
  
"Yeah, well, Max didn't have two ovens so last year we made the Impatience Pie at the Tower and I kept having to run over there."  
  
There was the same awkward pause that Bart got form nearly everyone when he mentioned his (most likely) dead mentor. He occasionally felt the urge to mention that talking about Max was a necessary part of his grieving process, but he didn't. Most people weren't all that interested in what Bart had read in books.   
  
... Well, except for Booster. It was one of the reasons Bart liked him so much.  
  
Speaking of Booster, "Mike is going to be here at six, if you were planning dinner or anything like that." He vibrated his foot against the linoleum and slid the Impatience Pie into place. The real oven hadn't finished preheating yet.  
  
"What? Who?"  
  
"Michael. Booster." Jay hadn't forgotten had he?   
  
"He isn't... I didn't know he would be spending the night?" There was the Awkward Old Person Face again. Bart sighed.  
  
"He lives in _Chicago_ , Jay." Bart rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to make him fly in on Thanksgiving and Joan said I wasn't allowed to do Flash-stuff during holidays so I can't pick him up."  
  
Jay seemed torn between keeping up a Joined Parental Front (as all the books that Bart has also read had told him to) and the horror of having Booster Gold as an overnight guest.  
  
"Can't he just Time--"  
  
"No."  
  
Jay looked pained, "Alright, but he can't stay in your room."  
  
" _Fine_. I thought you liked him."  
  
"I like him just fine." Jay said, "He's a nice boy... Man."  
  
The timer dinged and Bart moved at speed to put the pies into the oven. He returned to the conversation with a pair of puffy flash-themed oven mitts over both hands.   
  
"I don't understand what everyone's problem is!" He told Jay with frustration, "It's not like we're getting married! We don't even _have_ gay marriage in the future!"  
  
"You don't?"  
  
"Well we don't have straight marriage either... or straight people. Everyone just does their thing and you file your taxes jointly if you want to. This isn't _hard_."  
  
Bart checked on the Impatience Pie in disgust.  
  
"Ahhh..."  
  
"I mean," Bart said, staring at the ovens with a scowl, "Nobody is freaking out about Robin and _his_ girlfriend dating and he could impregnate her at any minute!"  
  
Jay blinked.  
  
"Contraceptives in this century are _notoriously_ unpredictable." Bart reminded him, " _I'm_ not impregnating anyone. I'm not even sleeping with more than one person!"   
  
"Bart."   
  
"What?!" Bart zipped over to the Impatience Pie and back, slamming the oven door in between.   
  
Jay took a deep breath, "I realize that your culture has taught you different... Values than we're used to in this time. Joan and I are trying our hardest, you know, and--"  
  
"I _guess_."   
  
"And we _do_ like Bo-- Michael. But we just aren't used to seeing a man his age with a boy your age. You'll have to bear with us."  
  
"Like _always_." Bart snorted.  
  
"And in return." Jay said as patiently as he could, "You'll have to bear with our antiquated ideas about love and monogamy? Alright?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"So while I am perfectly fine with your boyfriend staying the night, he'll have to stay on the couch downstairs. Is that okay?"  
  
"Yeah." Bart said, "I guess."  
  
Jay nodded, "So do you need help with any of this?"   
  
"We could make chocolate sauce."  
  
"I like chocolate sauce."  
  
"Who doesn't like chocolate sauce?!"  
  
Bart loved Thanksgiving.


End file.
